[Englecturers] FYI: Walter Mosley (11/1/05; collection)

[englecturers at lists.ucr.edu]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-cfp at lists.sas.upenn.edu [mailto:owner-cfp at lists.sas.upenn.edu]
On Behalf Of Derek Maus
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 9:43 AM
To: cfp at english.upenn.edu
Subject: CFP: Walter Mosley (11/1/05; collection)


CALL FOR PAPERS: Collection of critical articles on Walter Mosley

DEADLINE: 500-word abstracts or complete manuscripts by 11/1/05
EDITORS: Owen Brady (Clarkson University) and Derek Maus (SUNY Potsdam)

Submissions are invited for a collection of critical essays on the works 
of  Walter Mosley. We plan to build on the invaluable contributions made by 
Charles E. Wilson, Jr.'s Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion (Greenwood, 
2003), the first published book-length study of Mosley. The volume we are 
compiling intends to expand the variety of critical approaches from which 
Mosley's work can be examined and to provide more in-depth analysis of 
individual works, including many of Mosley's lesser-known books.

Over the course of two decades, Mosley has published seventeen books 
of  fiction in a variety of genres, an edited collection of essays on the 
future of society, and two long essays on history and social philosophy. 
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote, "Mosley has swiftly entered into the company 
of contemporary American novelists whose work is expected to last." Like 
playwright August Wilson, Mosley has produced a body of literary art that 
serves as a multi-faceted socio-historical chronicle of African American 
life in the latter half of the twentieth-century.  Moreover, Mosley has 
projected his literary vision into the future in both fictional and 
non-fictional forms, using African American experience as a lens through 
which the reader can analyze American life.

We envision our volume on Mosley will include new essays presenting a 
variety of critical perspectives on his corpus as well as a personal 
interview that will allow Mosley to comment upon some of these 
interpretations. As currently envisioned, our introductory essay will 
provide an overview of Mosley's literary production and offer a critical 
framework based on the "blues quest for home," a theme that concurrently 
explores the American dream and Mosley's characteristic literary style. The 
introduction will also include a brief survey of the extant criticism of 
Mosley's work, a bibliography of which will appear at the end of the volume.

The essays that follow this introduction will analyze Mosley's diverse 
fictional output as well as his non-fictional work. While all essays will 
be considered, we especially welcome submissions that analyze works other 
than the Easy Rawlins series, such as Mosley's Socrates Fortlow stories, 
his Fearless Jones novels, R. L.'s Dream, The Man in My Basement, his 
science fiction (Blue Light, Futureland), his young adult fiction (47), 
and/or his philosophical writings (Workin' on the Chain Gang, What Next). 
Taken as a whole, the essays in this volume will reveal Mosley's efforts to 
depict and comment upon the shifting place of African Americans in relation 
to the twin contexts of American culture and a broader Western 
social/philosophical legacy.

As teachers and scholars, much of whose critical work and classroom 
instruction has been in the field of African American literature, we 
believe that we can provide our colleagues and students with a useful 
collection of essays that will open up the world of Walter Mosley's writing 
for serious study both as social documents and as literary artifacts.

Submissions or inquiries can be sent either as a hard copy by mail to one 
of the addresses below or as e-mail attachments to obrady at clarkson.edu or 
mausdc at potsdam.edu. Abstracts (500 words) or complete manuscripts 
(3500-5000 words) formatted to MLA specifications are requested by November 
1, 2005. Final versions of essays accepted for the volume will be due by 
March 1, 2006.

Owen E. Brady                                                   Derek C.
Maus
School of Liberal Arts                                          Dept. of 
English and Communication
Clarkson University                                             SUNY Potsdam
Potsdam, New York 13699-5750                            Potsdam, NY 13676
(315) 268-3981                                                  (315)
265-5571
obrady at clarkson.edu                                     mausdc at potsdam.edu




Derek C. Maus
Assistant Professor and Literature Program Coordinator Department of English
and Communication SUNY College at Potsdam 244 Morey Hall Potsdam, NY 13676
(315) 267-2196
mausdc at potsdam.edu

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